DANBURY - When you practice enough at something, you eventually become good at it.

That mantra definitely belongs to the Danbury Trashers when it comes to killing penalties.

Over the course of the season, Danbury has collected 1,390 penalty minutes, second in the United Hockey League. So it's no surprise that they are sixth in the league while playing shorthanded.

The Trashers spent most of Friday night killing penalties in their 4-1 win over the Flint Generals before a sellout crowd at the Danbury Ice Arena.

"I don't want to say that our penalty killing has been struggling, but we've hit some bumps in the road," Danbury coach Todd Stirling said. "Tonight, that unit came up huge. Scott (Stirling) made some great saves, and we had some bounces that went our way."

"That's a big key for us," Stirling said. "I'd rather have a bunch of guys scoring goals than to have one guy doing everything. It makes us more dangerous. We really think that having balance is a big key for us."

More then anything, the Trashers won this game physically. They manhandled the Generals all over the ice. They owned the neutral zone, and never allowed Flint to run any offense.

Danbury's Special teams were also superb. The Trashers killed all but one penalty on Friday, including a seven-minute power play in the second period, where Stirling only faced two shots.

"You could see that they were demoralized after that," Stirling said. "You could tell by looking at their faces. Everything starts with our defensive zone. When that's working, the offense comes alive. When we were playing five on five tonight, we totally dominated them."

The game was never really close.

Danbury scored the first two goals of the game. After surrendering a goal to Flint's Andrei Lupandin at the end of the first period, the Trashers scored the last two goals of the game.

One came in the second period, the clincher came in the third period on State's goal, his second of the season.

This is an important weekend for Danbury. The Trashers lost three out of five on their most recent road trip, they face Flint tonight, and they are only three points ahead of Adirondack in the Eastern Division. So coach Stirling knows how crucial it is for his team to gain ground, not lose it, before the all-star break.

"It's nice to finally be home, and to have some familiar fans," Stirling said. "There are no gimmies anymore. We have to play well every night."

NOTES: Friday night marked the first appearance in Danbury for former Trasher Jim Duhart. Duhart, who was one of Danbury's leading scorers when he was traded in late November, was not treated well by the Danbury fans. They serenaded Duhart, who didn't leave the Trashers under the best circumstances, with derisive chants everytime he touched the puck....Nick Bilotto, one of the Trashers selected to participate in the UHL all-star game later this month, was called up to play with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Thursday. He was in uniform on Friday night, a 4-0 loss to the Providence Bruins...Brent Gretzky suffered a shoulder injury during the Trashers five game road trip. He was placed on the 14-day injured reserve list.